By CHARLES ANZALONE

When third-year UB Law School student Christopher Safulko took
part in last weekend’s law school trial team competition in
San Francisco, he surely felt the familiar stress to perform under
pressure and the adrenaline rush of backing up the others on his
team.

One thing is certain: Safulko, who is interested in a career in
litigation and trial practice, is uniquely qualified to keep that
excitement and tension in perspective. Three years ago in June, he
returned from a year-long deployment as an Army executive officer
and scout platoon leader in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan.
There, surrounded by Taliban insurgents, he helped defend a small
base in the remote mountains of that province, where he earned a
Purple Heart for being wounded in action and a Bronze Star for his
yearlong combat service.

“While there, I was either extremely bored or extremely
terrified,” Safulko says. “I can say that I saw
progress and that I saw some major setbacks.”

Safulko and his law school classmates Joseph Nicastro, Steven
Earnhart and Adam Penna traveled to San Francisco last weekend to
compete in the Golden Gate University Prof. Bernie Segal Criminal
Mock Trial Competition, one of four UB trial teams to compete this
semester throughout the country.

The team went up against teams from Catholic University, the
University of Missouri at Kansas City and Southern Illinois
University in a case about a bank robbery.

The competition went well, says Christopher J. O’Brien,
co-director of the UB Law School’s Trial Advocacy Program
with Erie County Court Judge Thomas P. Franczyk, although the team
did not advance to the semifinals.

But O’Brien notes that after Safulko’s summation,
the judge from the opposing team remarked to O’Brien that
Salfulko had made difficult points seem
“self-evident.”

“I learned about his service to our country not from him
bragging about it, but from a classmate who said he thought Chris
served in the armed forces. We had to really grill him before he
would tell us what happened. And it was only after we learned about
the Purple Heart that another classmate came up to me and said,
‘By the way, he’s also got a Bronze Star.’

“He is an example of the best of our nation,”
O’Brien says. “Someone who has served his country, but
doesn’t wear it on his sleeve.”

More people than his UB Law brethren and colleagues have paid
close attention to Safulko’s experiences. Jake Tapper, senior
White House correspondent for ABC News, has written a book about
the camp—Combat Outpost Keating, where Safulko was stationed.
His book, “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American
Valor,” was written after Tapper conducted extensive
interviews with Safulko and includes substantial passages on the UB
Law student.

“The Outpost,” scheduled to be released this month
by Little, Brown and Company, chronicles the battle of COP Keating
in 2009, a battle the Taliban lost but not before inflicting high
casualties on American troops. Safulko’s unit was one of four
different units assigned to defend COP Keating from 2008 to early
2009. The fierce battles over that remote camp eventually led to an
American withdrawal.

“When I arrived with my platoon, I inherited a mission
that existed long before I entered the country,” says
Safulko, 28, who graduated from Amherst High School and then
enrolled in the ROTC program at Canisius College, earning an
undergraduate degree in political science. “And it was one
that would continue after I left. We were tasked with bridging the
gap between the local and national governments in Afghanistan.

“That’s a loaded statement because there are so many
implied tasks: improve the security situation, build confidence in
the national government, build confidence in the local government,
supervise development projects, advise and assist Afghan police and
the Afghan national army, and drive a wedge between the local
population and the insurgency.”

Safulko summarizes his experiences into three scenarios.
Danger—as well as a mixed sense of satisfaction, frustration
and pride—is present in each.

Oct. 28, 2008

Safulko was in an “overwatch position” providing
security for a joint U.S.-Afghan mission. “The mission was
simple and brief,” he says. “Conduct a traffic-control
point on the only road running through the valley, Afghan police
would have the opportunity to search vehicles if they were
suspicious and talk to passersby—possibly to gain valuable
information regarding the security situation in the
area.”

Safulko had been in position on the side of the mountain before
sunrise, watching the U.S.-Afghan contingent cross a rickety
footbridge and return to camp.

“The soldiers cross one by one—the bridge could only
support the weight of one, maybe two people at a time,” he
says. “My commander began to cross, and just as he neared the
far side of the bridge, an IED (improvised explosive device)
detonated underneath him (Safulko says the bomb was tied to a piece
of garbage stuffed into the bridge). The explosion threw him off of
the bridge onto the ground. His legs were shredded, something that
was obvious from my elevated position over watching the
patrol.”

Everyone at COP Keating agreed this was no accident. The
commander was targeted for assassination by the insurgency.

“They hated him because he stood for something:
progress,” says Safulko. “Under his leadership the unit
had been invited into surrounding villages. In some cases he was
even escorted by village elders and leadership, who provided
guarantees of safe passage and protection. The thing is, most of
this progress was built around face time, meetings, meals and
tea.”

His commander, Capt. Robert Yllescas—whom Safulko admired
as a soldier and man—died from his wounds about a month
later, leaving behind a wife and two daughters.

“I can’t say that we learned anything new from this
unpleasant experience and loss of an outstanding combat
leader,” Safulko says. “I think if anything, it
reinforced some concepts we already knew: What we do is just as
important (if not more so) than what we say; to lead by example
(and not ask others to do something we would not do ourselves). We
also learned just how important one person can be. We never
completely recovered from that experience. The trust between the
U.S. soldiers, local police, the surrounding villages and the
Afghan army was never quite the same. While the mission continued
and progress was made, we never really reached that same level of
cooperation or trust that we had in October of 2008.”

May 30-31, 2009

At this time, some of the soldiers in Safulko’s unit were
being sent home. Replacements had begun to arrive. It was dusk, a
time of day everyone knew was dangerous.

“If you were outside, you tended to scan the high ground
all around you looking for anything unusual,” he says.
“I was standing behind a Humvee talking to one of my
noncommissioned officers, Sgt. Shane Scherer. I had just commented
on the fact that this was a dangerous time to be outside in the
open and that most of the soldiers would be going home soon.

“I took about three steps away and a recoilless rifle
round struck the Humvee we were standing next to and passed clean
through the vehicle, spraying shrapnel out the other side. The camp
was under attack, again. The camp was attacked sometimes on a
weekly basis.”

Safulko says he was lucky; he was peppered with small pieces of
shrapnel in a few spots on his left side. Scherer was not. As is
often the case, the difference between serious injury and escaping
was a matter of a couple of feet, a small angle between the two
men.

“One piece severed an artery in his arm. Another piece
penetrated his skull and entered his brain,” Safulko says.
“He was kept alive by some very talented and skilled army
medics while they waited close to an hour for him to be
evacuated.”

Scherer spent more than a year recovering from his injuries and
is now earning a master’s degree in public
administration.

“I spoke to him on the phone the day he woke up at the
hospital—he was in a coma for some time,” Safulko says.
“I traveled to the VA hospital in California where he was
receiving rehabilitative care and spoke at the ceremony where he
was awarded his Purple Heart. I attended his wedding reception a
year after that—his wedding was postponed a year because of
these injuries; he was supposed to get married as soon as we
returned from Afghanistan. He has come to visit me here in Buffalo.
We stay in touch.”

Oct. 3, 2009

The final episode is an epilogue of sorts.

Safulko had by now returned to Fort Hood in Texas and heard on
the news about an attack on a remote mountain base in Afghanistan.
He knew immediately it was COP Keating. The unit that had replaced
his that previous June was surrounded and attacked by a large enemy
force. After holding their ground, eight American soldiers were
killed and many more wounded. A few days later, COP Keating was
shut down.

“When they closed COP Keating, I think the initial
reaction, for some people, was to say ‘All of that for
nothing. Everyone who lost their lives or was maimed out there, it
was in vain…’ With that sort of view, I think
it’s very easy for bitterness to set in. It also ignores the
fact that when that mission began in 2005, it was impossible to say
what could or would happen four or five years later.

“I have to remember that I didn’t leave Afghanistan
empty-handed, regardless of the negative or unpleasant experiences
I had there, the same experiences that anyone who has served in
combat has had,” says Safulko. “I left with a real
understanding of how fortunate I am. I carry a perspective that I
have only because of those experiences. I'd like to think that that
perspective is what keeps me moving forward. I think many of the
soldiers I served with think the same way. You don’t want to
waste a day that you are given.”

Safulko says he is happy he decided to return to his hometown to
attend UB Law School, and praises the other members of his trial
team for the diverse experience they offer as a group.

“UB is a good mix between the core fundamentals classes
and a hands-on opportunity with the clinics and the
externships,” he says. “For me, being a little bit
older, that makes a lot of sense.”

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